nacaztli (Mdz13v)

nacaztli (Mdz13v)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for nacaztli (ear) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Cuauhnacaztlan. It is a black line drawing colored orange. The lines make apparent some of the cartilage and the lobe.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

Perhaps because the human ear is on the side of our heads, the ear could refer to something "on the side," and in the case of the place name from which this element derives, at the side of the woods, or alongside the woods? For another human ear associated with the verb to hear, caqui, see Concaquitl, below.

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Anatomy, human body parts
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Keywords: 

ears, sides, orejas, lados

Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

nacaz(tli), ear, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/nacaztli

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

ear

Glyph/Icon Name, Spanish Translation: 

la oreja

Spanish Translation, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 13 verso, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 37 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

See Also: 

Cuauhnacaztlan (Mdz13v)

Concaquitl (MH491r)

Nacazpatlactic (MH626v)